FRAZIER: "I'm pleased with my weight. I would like to have come in a little lighter, but the way I've been eating and resting real good and drinking a little water, I feel fully strong, I'm no way tense, or nothing. I'm all ready to go."

QUESTION: "You still say that you can do it within ten rounds, Joe?" FRAZIER: "I' still feel like I can do it in ten rounds.I don't think Clay's going to be able to run that fast, I don't think he'll keep up with the pressure I'm going to put on him, he's going to have to stop and fight."

Initials OS/055 GL/OS/100

SPORT: BOXING

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Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: World heavyweight boxing champion Joe Frazier weighed in at 205 1/2 pounds (93.21 kilos) at Madison Square Garden, New York, for tonight's momentous championship battle with Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay). It just half a pound (226 grams) heavier than he a expected to be.

Ali later weighed in at 215 pounds (97.52 kilos), exactly his predicted weight. Both men were pronounced fit by medical experts. Ali was due to weigh in an hour after Frazier (it had been decided to keep the two apart), but delayed his arrival by a further hour.

This film is a telerecording of pictures transmitted by satellite to Europe from New York. The cameraman was from United Press and the material was pooled in New York and made available to all television stations throughout Europe.

We apologise for not including coverage of the Ali weigh-in. The satellite transmission was too early to allow it to be included.

SYNOPSIS: As boxing fans around the world waited for the big Ali-Frazier fight, reigning champion Joe Frazier arrived at Madison Square Garden to weigh-in in the ring hare he was to meet Muhammad Ali a few hours later. The two men were weighed separately, and Ali arrived and hour late for his appointment with the scales -- too late for this satellite transmission.

The world's writers and cameramen packed the stadium. Frazier showed them the muscle power he hoped would put Ali out of the fight. He told them he was happy with his weight -- just half a pound above his predicted weight, and almost ten pounds lighter than his opponent clocked two hours later.